WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT

What makes me different? I get real about Dentistry.

I thought I had my life all planned out. I thought I knew myself well enough to trust in my plan, but I was all wrong in so many ways. While I knew I wanted a stable, comfortable, and successful life, buried deep inside of me was someone who longed for creativity, spontaneity, and adventure. I took the safe path and chose to be a dentist because I knew it would provide the perfect life that I could fit neatly into a box. I was going to be happy, I was going to help people, and I was going to have a dream lifestyle to go along with my dream career.

Something went wrong along the way because that’s not how it turned out. Instead I ended up trapped in the wrong life– the wrong career. During the 10 years I practiced dentistry, it appeared as if I had it all. From the outside it seemed I was thriving in a noble career that helped so many people, earning an amazing income, cultivating happy personal relationships, and living in total freedom. I had it all, or so it seemed. I had all those things, but I was far from feeling happy and fulfilled. Instead, I dreaded my days in the office. I wasted away my nights, worrying about the days that surrounded each night. I lived for vacations, only to be even more depressed when I had to come home and face the reality of my life. I was worried all the time– worried about work, worried about my patients, and worried that I couldn’t save enough money to retire early enough. For years I secretly suffered through each day, hating about myself the very thing that I had come to use to define myself: being a dentist.

I knew I wanted to change, but I was doing nothing about it! Years went by, and I couldn’t get off the roller coaster.

After being stuck for so long, I knew I had to change. I had no choice but to finally DO SOMETHING, and that changed my life forever. Working with a career coach was a turning point for me. I learned how to better manage stressful situations, I learned to finally admit that clinical dentistry was not right for me, and I learned ways to change my mindset about what was possible in my life. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.

Changing my attitudes and beliefs helped me change everything.

I used the very principles with myself that I use today with my clients. Getting real about my dental career gave me the freedom and power to change it, instead of continuing to suffer through it in silence. As the author of the Lolabees blog, I have championed all of us being real about our careers. I have created a public forum where dentists feel comfortable not only having open and honest discussions about the issues we face in our challenging careers, but also pushing forward into change. Many have been inspired to go on and make their own shifts to improve their career satisfaction.

Because of my personal experience with my own career journey, I know what it takes to change.

I know what it’s like to believe I have no other skills and therefore no other options. I’ve stayed stuck believing I’d never find anything else that offers the amazing perks dentistry has to offer. I’ve allowed my high standards– wanting to be engaged and challenged, have independence and financial comfort, and have fun and happiness– to make me believe that the status quo was hard to beat… no matter how unhappy it made me. I’ve experienced being so wrapped up in my identity, that if I weren’t a dentist, I didn’t know who I would be.

Because I understand all of this firsthand, I know how to help others work through their own challenges. Whether you need help making choices about your future or being accountable for taking action to have the life you want, I know how to help you.

What is Lolabees?

Lolabees is a total accident! In 2011, I opened the door to a sense of creativity that I never knew I had. At the time I wanted desperately to change, but I wasn’t doing anything about it– I was all talk and no action. I didn’t know how I was going to change, but I started blogging simply as means to shift that stagnant, stuck energy in my life. I had never considered blogging before, and it really is one of the last things I ever expected I’d do.

My blog needed a name, so I chose the email name I created in 1997 that was a play on a nickname I had and the bumblebee– Lolabees. Little did I know at the time that Lolabees would become a vehicle to connect dentists from all over the world. It became a place where others could come and share their stories, and we could connect in a way that dentists are rarely ever able to connect. Together, we all built a community of dentists to support each other and inspire change.

It turns out the bumblebee symbolizes community, diligence, and power. Bees are social creatures who team up and work together to accomplish a goal. For years the scientific community was baffled about how bees fly. Mechanically, it is impossible, but they still fly. If a bee is not designed to fly, and it is successfully doing it against all odds, so can we.

This is what Lolabees is all about– community, teamwork, and achieving the unimaginable.